Daily Ticker

Amazon.com: Coming to a State Near You and Bringing Job Offers

Amazon.com (AMZN) may be coming to a city near you. The largest U.S. online retailer -- North American revenue jumped a whopping 40% last year -- is expanding its fleet of fulfillment warehouses across the country to meet growing demand for its goods.

For the online shopper, this means you could receive your Amazon-purchased packages even faster. For states, it clearly means more jobs. Amazon has targeted Delaware, South Carolina, Indiana, California, Virginia, Tennessee and New Jersey for its new warehouses, many of which are set to be 1-million-square feet and employ anywhere between 400 and 1,500 full-time workers. The issue of additional tax revenue, which for many cash-strapped states would help close up budget shortfalls, will help certain locales sooner than others.

While this might seem like a win-win for everyone, Amazon has come under some scrutiny in recent years for the working conditions in its warehouses. The most notable instance was the well-documented case of extremely hot temperatures in its Allentown, Pa., warehouse during a heat wave when some workers fainted and were rushed to the hospital. According to an investigation by The Morning Call in Allentown, Amazon paid ambulances to sit outside the warehouse in the event of more heat-related sicknesses.

After that disturbing news broke, Amazon installed a new $52 million air conditioning system to help keep its Allentown workers cool. The online retailer is making this a standard practice for all of its warehouses. The company told The Daily Ticker via email:

"Safety is our top priority. Since we ship hundreds of millions of packages a year, employ tens of thousands of associates, and record millions of work hours, it isn't possible to accurately portray the effectiveness of our procedures with anecdotes.

From January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2011, our U.S. fulfillment network had an annual average recordable incidence rate ranging from 2.2 to 4.2. These rates are lower than for auto manufacturing, the warehousing industry, and even for department stores. To put it simply, it's safer to work in an Amazon fulfillment center than in a department store. In addition to our focus on safety, we also pay fulfillment center associates 30 percent more than traditional physical retail store employees.

In recent years, we've built our new fulfillment centers with air conditioning units installed. This year, we are also investing $52 million to retrofit our other fulfillment centers with air conditioning. This is very unusual in the warehousing and distribution business."

In the accompanying interview, New Jersey Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Essex) joined The Daily Ticker to discuss Amazon's agreement, which he helped craft for the Garden State.

"This is a great deal for the state of New Jersey," he says. Amazon will invest between $130 million and $300 million in the state to build two 1-million-square-foot order-fulfillment centers that will generate 1,500 full-time jobs, as well as many part-time jobs and seasonal jobs, Coutinho says. There will also be a need for many construction jobs to build the new facility, which is slated to break ground next year. He says the company has made assurances that it will protect all its workers in the warehouses.

The deal will also "begin to level the playing field" between Amazon and brick-and-mortar stores, says Coutinho. Currently, online retailers have a competitive advantage over traditional stores because they do not have to charge sales tax, which makes it cheaper to purchase goods online. Amazon has agreed to collect a 7 percent sales tax on New Jersey residents starting in the summer of 2013, which could generate an additional $30 million to $40 million in tax revenue for the state each year.

In Virginia, Amazon will collect sales tax from residents starting in 2013. In South Carolina, the date is set for 2016, and in Tennessee and Indiana the new practice will take hold in 2014.

Recommended for You

Thinkstock In 2015, the Internal Revenue Service audited only 0.84% of all individual tax returns. So the odds are generally pretty low that your return will be picked for review. That said, your chances ...

Retirement investing is not what it used to be. The problem with the Federal Reserve's attempt to goose the economy is that it killed bond yields, forcing retired investors further out onto the risk curve, making it difficult to find safe stocks to buy.

Exxon Mobil Corp Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson emerged on Friday as President-elect Donald Trump's leading candidate for U.S. secretary of state, a senior transition official said. Trump appears to be in the final days of deliberations over his top diplomat with an announcement possible next week. Tillerson's favored status was revealed as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani formally withdrew from consideration for secretary of state.

Dec.08 -- Taiwan is again a potential flashpoint in U.S-China relations, after Donald Trump broke protocol by talking with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. Taipei is also re-asserting its claim over contested territory in the South China Sea. Bloomberg's Stephen Engle reports from Taiping in the Spratly Islands.

U.S. home values rose again in October, and a handful of states reported increases exceeded the national average. Housing prices increased 6.7 percent in October compared to the same month a year ago, ...

Conventional wisdom dispensed by financial planners about taking Social Security largely boils down to this: Wait as long as you can. Forty-eight percent of women and 42 percent of men who claimed benefits in 2013 did so at 62, which is the most popular age to start getting Social Security. Part of the reason is that, in some circumstances, waiting simply doesn’t make sense, “The decision on when to start Social Security depends on factors such as how long you expect to live, cash flow needs and marital status,” says Daniel Galli, a certified financial planner in Norwell, Massachusetts.

General Electric Co. said Friday that it raised its quarterly dividend by 4.3% to 24 cents a share from 23 cents a share. The new dividend will be payable Jan. 25 to shareholders of record on Dec. 27. ...

President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to offer U.S. companies a one-time repatriation holiday would bolster domestic liquidity and improve financial flexibility, Moody’s says, but it would likely be ...

Rupert Murdoch may get all of European broadcaster Sky after all after the U.K. phone-hacking scandal scotched a previous effort. Sky said Friday that Murdoch's entertainment conglomerate 21st Century ...

Southwest Airlines has stopped new flights between Los Angeles and Mexico because Mexican authorities haven't finished the paperwork formally authorizing the service. American Airlines has been forced ...

Large banks in Britain want the UK government to allow their industry to remain subject to EU laws for up to five years after Brexit, a move likely to enrage eurosceptics who want to break away from the bloc's legal system as soon as possible. The banks - international players - are also pressing the government to allow the European Court of Justice to rule on decisions related to their businesses during that period, according to a document reviewed by Reuters. The document was drawn up by law firms on behalf of banks lobbying the government for a departure in stages from the EU.

Another day of all-time highs across the major indices (^DJI, ^GSPC, ^IXIC, ^RUT), with the health care (XLV) sector leading the way up, but financials (XLF) still languishing in the red. Alan Valdes, director of floor operations at Silverbear joins us live from the New York Stock Exchange. To discuss big stories of the day, Alexis Christoforous is joined by Yahoo Finance’s Jen Rogers and Melody Hahm. Mark Zuckerberg is under scrutiny after recently unsealed court documents reveal he may have had inappropriate communication with fellow Facebook board member Marc Andreessen.

David Demos, 35, was charged with securities fraud in an indictment filed in federal court in New Haven, Connecticut, becoming the latest trader to face charges for cheating customers on prices of mortgage-backed securities. Demos, of Westport, Connecticut, appeared in court on Friday for an arraignment.